


The Bear's Last Princess

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [37]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 1800s-era Tech, Bittersweet, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Flash Fic, Gen, Genderqueer Character, Growing Up, Illnesses, Microfic, Misunderstandings, Original Character(s), Originally Posted Elsewhere, Panic, Pre-Relationship, Sick Character, Talking Animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23375779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: “Kirra. Your nanny is clearly sick. Why are you putting them through this?” Taaron asked.“Oh. Well, bears like games—it’s just a game—”“I know. But maybe not to them? How do you think they would feel if they truly lost you?”***A bear searches for their human charge.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [37]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 5





	The Bear's Last Princess

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in March 2020. It has been given minor edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️
> 
>  **SUGGESTED REREADING:** This is a follow-up to ["The Moth-wing Throne."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23374921)
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

In one awkward movement, Kirra the witch-heir darted under the house in which Taaron and the silversmith lived. Taaron, meanwhile, looked up from her anvil in concern. Her friend was often struck with terrible dizzy spells and had been her whole life, in fact. But this fall seemed intentional.

Kirra peered out from the crawlspace, pressing her finger to her lips, then disappeared once more, stifling laughter. 

A voice like the beating of a massive drum sounded through the street. When Taaron turned around, she spied a bear out in the road in front of the doctor’s place. Towering higher than a carriage, it stood on its hind legs, speaking to a group of the town militia in a hushed tone.

Ah. She’d seen this bear in town before. Its flattened head, its red-rimmed eyes. Most of its white fur had fallen out, revealing the pale, hairless skin beneath. It was a _they,_ she reminded herself. A talking bear. A being.

The town watchfolk dispersed, and the bear returned to all fours. Their eyes met Taaron’s, and they shambled over to the forge, putting one paw gently on the wooden fence that separated the silversmith’s house and the street.

“Have you seen—” 

A cough rippled through the bear’s body, and fluid sprayed across yard. 

They tried again: “Have you seen a little witch girl? With hair the color of pondwater. You are a witch, no? I smell her. I smell her!” The bear returned to the street. “Kirra! Kirra Lattar!”

Kirra crawled out next to Taaron's foot, all the while covering her mouth and grinning. At once Taaron came to a realization—the first of many that day.

“Kirra. Your nanny is clearly sick. Why are you putting them through this?” Taaron asked.

“Oh. Well, bears like games—it’s just a game—”

“I know. But maybe not to them? How do you think they would feel if they truly lost you—even beyond what your parents might do to them?”

“Mama and Ma would never hurt Toor—”

“And this isn’t the first time they’ve come to town, either." Taaron watched the panicked bear. ”I just didn’t know that they were your bear—Toor, you said? Toor is always looking for you.”

“Oh.”

The pair stepped into the road. How massive Toor looked then—and how terrifying when the bear stumbled in front of Kirra, emitting a horrid, raucous roar. Green spittle flew from Toor’s mouth. Few of their teeth remained, and their tongue lolled to one side, swollen. 

Then the great bear fell to the cobblestones, prone, mucus running from their nose. Taaron threw her arms around Kirra’s shoulders, but Kirra seemed unperturbed—only sad.

“I am old,” Toor murmured, their lungs audibly bubbling. “I am old and ill and too far south, and my fur is gone. I did not mean to yell, my Kirra. I am simply old.” 

Kirra played with the strings on her bodice. She had a good heart, Taaron decided, but the consequences of moments past the present completely escaped her. Perhaps all heirs had such issues.

“You are my twelfth princess,” Toor continued, “and the last I shall serve. I have given up my hair and my teeth and my health for the love of you all. And you—little Kirra.”

Something in those words tapped Taaron like a hammer, as if she herself were made of silver. She ran into her uncle’s house—he was away on some business or another—and returned with an intricate circlet.

Taaron said, “Take this. Take this and buy passage as far north as you can go, Toor. Kirra?”

The witch-heir stared at her with an open horror that Taaron would forever remember, that would haunt her even in her waking hours. 

Then Kirra wept. "I love you, Toor. I do. I thought you liked to chase, since you're a bear and all. I just wanted you to be happy. I—"

Toor breathed deep, then got to their feet. “What will you tell your mothers?”

“That...you were old, Toor, but that I'm old, too.” 

“You, lavender witch—this is not your handicraft, is it?” Toor said, as Kirra cuddled into their side.

When Taaron lay the circlet in Toor’s paws, it seemed no more than a trinket. 

“No,” said Taaron, “gods, no. But it will do better with you than wherever it was meant to go.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Historians have found evidence that Toor did in fact make it north, where they regrew their hair and lived out their remaining decade fighting angels.
> 
> When they passed, they left a great amount of treasure to the Lattar heirs, but to Kirra "and the lavender one" most of all.)
> 
> Please be sure to leave a comment or a kudos or bookmark the piece if you enjoyed it! ❤️
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** If Taaron and Kirra had their own novels, they'd be _His Dark Materials_ meets _Little Witch Academia_ with a dash of Neil Gaiman and anything T. Kingfisher's ever written. Anyway, this story takes after the first parent. Talking friend animals are my fave, but bears are, like, my double fave.
> 
> There will be more Toor. I know I say "there will be more X" all the time, but I'm holding myself to this one in particular, as Toor's the favorite character of a good friend of mine.


End file.
